Process of producing a spinnable sliver



Oct. 23, 1951 2,572,783

BAREND GYSBERTUS HENDRIKUS VAN DER JAGT NOW BY CHANGE OF NAME BAREND GYSBERTUS HENRY VANDERJAGT PROCESS OF PRODUCING A SPINNABLE SLIVER Filed July 20, 1946 TEE- ScRUB PALMETTO STEM MECHANlCAL SEPARATION mwmammm \NTO LONG Hams SHORT fiBcRs Cur lNTO L065 (MQRETHANS INcH) (LESS THANSILONG) Somme FOR 9 HOURS SuvER FORMATION \N CAUSTIC SODA SOLUTION OF b BC. WASHING DRYING (a b= 5Tol2) BRowms SPlNNABLE FIBER I INVENTOR 16 ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 23, 1951 PROCESS OF PRODUCING SLIVER ASPINNABLE Barend Gysbertus'f'Hendrikus "Van der Jagt, Washington, D. C.;'now by change of name, Barend Gysbertus Henry Vanderjagt Application July 20,'1946, Serial No. 685,018

This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending application Serial No. 507,924, which was filed on October 23, 1943, and became abandoned on September 20, 1946, as a continuation-in-part of my application Serial No. 450,989, filed on July 15, 1942, and abandoned on December 30, 1943.

The present invention relates to a brownish spinnable sliver and to a process of producing such sliver from fibers obtained by a mechanical defibration of the stems of scrub palmetto plants. These plants grow abundantly in Florida and are also found in other parts of the continental United States and in the West Indies. The btanical name of the scrub palmetto plant is Serenoa repens. The part of the scrub palmetto plant from which the fibers to be treated according to the present invention are obtained grows in a substantially horizontal direction underground and, for thi reason, it was previously believed to be part of the root of the plant and identified as such in my application Serial No. 507,924 above referred to. However, according to recent information supplied by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, this underground part of the scrub palmetto plant is botanically its stem, and, consequently, it is identified as a stem .in the present application.

Palmetto stem fibers as obtained by mechanical defibration of scrub palmetto stems are coarse, smooth, straight and highly elastic hard fibers which heretofore have been used only to a very limited extent in the manufacture of bristle brushes.- -In the form in which these fibers are obtained from mechanical defibration processes they have a light straw-yellow color, but these fibers cannot be formed into a sliver by sliverforming machines because the coarse straight fibers tend to repel one another due to their great stiifness and resiliency.

In order to permit the formation of spinnable slivers on sliver-forming machines, it is necessary that the fibers supplied to such machine have a certain amount of cohesion which permits the fibers to be re-arranged lengthwise of one another by the machine and which causes the fibers to cohere in any re-arranged position. property is completely lacking in fibers obtained froma mechanical defibration of the stems of scrub palmetto plants.

One object of the present invention is to produce from fibers obtained by a mechanical defibration of stem of scrub palmetto plants (Seremoa repens) a spinnable sliver.

Inan application Ser. No. 685,017, now'aban-= This 5 Claims. (Cl. 19*66) I doned, filed concurrently herewith, a process is described and claimed for producing a light straw-colored spinnable sliver from fibers obtained' by amechanical defibration of the stems of scrub palmetto plants, said process including the step of separating the mixture of long and short fibers obtained from a mechanical defibration of scrub palmetto stems into short fibers up to 5 inches length and longer fibers, tackifying the longer fibers, and forming the fibers into a sliver While they are in tacky condition. This sliver-forming process according to my concurrently filed application is not applicable to the shortfibers of lessthan about 5 inches length.

It is, therefore, a specific object of the present invention to produce a spinnable sliver from scrub palmetto stem fibers of less than about 5 inches length.

The present invention is based on the discovery that short or long palmetto stem fibers when boiled with caustic soda solution of a certainlimited strength for a certain limited time and then washed and dried will develop,-o n drying, hookshaped kinks of atype not ordinarily formed in textile fibers as a result oftreatments with caustic lyes, said hook-shaped kinks causing adjacent fibers -to,cohere together while being slidably displaceable lengthwise of one another and thus rendering possible the subsequent formation of a spinnable sliver on a sliver-forming machine.

Accordingly, the above mentioned objects of my invention are accomplished by a process which comprises the steps of boiling fibers obtained by a mechanical defibration of the stems of scrub palm'etto plants (Serenoa repens) for a period ranging from about 10 minutes to about 2 hours in an aqueous caustic soda solution of between about 4 and about 55 B. strength, the strength of the solution being related to the boiling time according to the formula a b=5 to 12, where a. is the boiling. time in hours and b is the strength of the solution in degrees B., washing the fibers with an aqueous medium having a pH value between about 5.5 and 7, drying them, the fibers developing, during the drying, hook-shaped kinks causing adjacent fibers to cohere together while being slidabl displaceable lengthwise of one another, and finally forming the kinky fibers on, a sliverforming machine into a spinnable sliver.

'The "aqueous medium used. for washing the fibers after completion ofthe caustic lye boiling step may 'be'cold' or warm water. The water may be adjusted to a pH value between about 5 and 7 by 'addi'tionofa suitable acid, such as hydrochloric acid or acetic acid, to efiect neutralization of any alkali remaining in the fibers.

The following examples describe several embodiments of the invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates, somewhat diagrammatically, a group-of fibersas obtained by a mechanicaldefibration of the stems of scrub palmetto plants;

Fig. 2 illustrates diagrammatically the same group of fibers after treatment in accordance with my invention prior to theformationof the. sliver Fig. 3 illustrates diagrammatically a sliver formed from the treated fibers according: to- Fi 2;

Fig. 4 shows a sliver formed according to-the. invention from scrub palmetto stemrfibers having a length up to 5 inches; and

Fig. 5 is a fiow diagram of the process of producing a sliver of the type shown in Fig. 4.

Example I The stems of scrub palmetto plants (Serenoa repen's), as dug up from the ground, were cut. into equal lengthsfof about 14. inches, and thev resultinglogs were mechanically defibrat'ed in a v twilly devil. The resulting fibers were coarse, smooth and substantially straight as illustrated; at" l05in Fig. 1. They had a light straw color.

so kg; of these fibers were placed in a vat containing a caustic soda solution of '15' B strength and boiled intlle solution at atmospheric pressure for 30', minutes. At the end of: this period the fibers, the: originallight strawcolor of which had darkened to a brownish shade, were removed froi'n'the vat, washed with cold water, and left to. dry; During the drying the fibers developeda peculiar type of hook-shaped kinks as indicatedin Fig. 2.

These kinky fibers werefed to asliver-forming machine and it was found that adjacent fibers wouldhook loosely on to eachother' by their kinks, permitting mutual displacement lengthwise-of each other during the sliver-forming oporation and cohering again after each re-arrangemerit; Fig. 3 shows a sliver formed in'this mannee-from fibe'ls-as' illustrated in Fig. 2. The sliver could be spun on: s inning machines in the usual manner.

Example II 20kg. of palmetto fibers obtained bya-mechanical defibration of the stems of scrub palmetto plants, .as described in Example I, were boiled for 1 hour. in a caustic soda solution of 5 as. strength. The color of the fibers darkened perceptibly but. the fibers remained straight. At the end of the boiling period. the fiberswere washed with cold water and dried; Ondrying, kinks developed in. the fibers substantialhnv as shown in Fig. 2. Thelight brown kinky. fibersv were fed to a sliver-forming machine'andformed into a spinnable sliver of the type illustrated in Fig. 3.

' Example III A- fiber mixture obtained by mechanical defibration of logs cut from the stems of scrub palmetto plants (Serenod repens), as described in.Example I, and containing longer fibers Illa, and shorter fibers b (see Fig. l), were separated by. screening into short fibers lllbhaving a length up to 5. inches and long fibers loazhaving: alength, between 5 inches and 14 inches, (see flow diagram. in. Fig. 5).. The long. fibers Illa. were. treated. witha tackifyi'ng agent and formed into,

4 a light straw-colored spinnable sliver while tacky as described and claimed in my concurrently filed application.

50 kg. of the short fibers were placed in an iron vessel containing an aqueous caustic soda solution of 12 B strength and boiled for 1 hour. At the'ehd of this periodthe' original light strawcolor of the fibers had changed to a deep brown, but the fibers were still perfectly straight. The fibers were then removed from the lye, washed with lukewarm water which had been acidified by addition of hydrochloric acid to a pH value Example IV 50 kg; palmetto fibers as obtained by a mechanicaldefibration of the stems of scrub palmettop1ants (SeTenoa repen's') as described in Example I, wererboiledfor-2 hoursin an aqueous caustic soda solution of 6 B. strength. After washing with cold water acidified with acetic acid'to a pH Value-of 6.2, the-fibersdeveloped, on drying, the hook-shaped kinks illustrated in Fig, 2. were then formed into aspinnable brownish col-- cred. sliver on a sliver forming machine as de-' scribed in Example I.

Example V 20 kg. palmetto fibers as obtained from the,

mechanical defib'ratio-n. of the stems of scrubpalmetto plants (Serenoa repens) as described in Example I were boiled for 2 hours in a causticv soda solutionof 4 B. strength. After washingin warm water, and drying,.the fibers which had developed a kinky) appearance, substantially as shown in Fig.v 2, were formed into a brownish.

spinnable sliver on a sliver-forming machine.

Example VI 25 kg. of short palmetto fibers obtained from a mechanical defibration of the stems of scrub almetto plants and subsequent separation of the long and short fibers, as described in Example IIL-were boiled'for 10 minutes in a caustic soda solution of 30" Be. strength. Then the fibers were-washed in cold water and dried, developing during the drying kinks ofthe type described in the preceding examples; The light brown kinky Example VII 25 kg. of palmetto fibers obtained by a the-- chanical defibration of stems of scrub palmetto plants (Serenoa repens), as described in Example 1, were boiled for 10 minutes in a caustic soda solution of B. strength. At the end.-

ing, the; fibers became. kinky, as shown in Fig. 2,,

and-were then formed on a sliver-forming machin'ei-nto alight brown spinnable sliver as shown;

in Fig. 3.

Example VIII 20 kg. of palmetto fibers obtained: by a me chanical defibration of. stems of scrub palmetto 74%. plants. (Serenoa-repens) its described inEXamme They- I, were boiled for 15 minutes in a caustic soda solution of 48 B. The dark brown fibers were then washed in cold water, acidified with hydrochloric acid to a pH value of 5.5, and dried. During drying, the fibers developed hook-shaped kinks, as shown in Fig. 2, and were then fed to a sliver-forming machine and formed into a dark brown spinnable sliver substantially as shown in Fig. 3.

I claim:

1. A process of preparing a brownish spinnable sliver from fibers contained in the stems of scrub palmetto plants (Serenoa repens) which process comprises the steps of boilin fibers obtained by a mechanical defibration of scrub palmetto plant stems for a period ranging from about minutes to about 2 hours in an aqueous caustic soda solution of between about 4 and about 55 B. strength, the strength of the solution being related to the boiling time according to the formula:

a b=5 to 12 where a. is the boiling time in hours and b is the strength of the solution in degrees B., washing the fibers with an aqueous medium having a pH Value between about 5.5 and 7, drying them, the fibers developing during the drying hook-shaped kinks causing adjacent fibers to cohere together while being slidably displaceable lengthwise of one another, and forming the kinky fibers on a sliver-forming machine into a brownish spinnable sliver.

2. A process as claimed in claim 1, in which the fibers are boiled for about 30 minutes in a caustic long and short fibers obtained by a mechanical defibration' of scrub palmetto stems into short fibers having a length up to about 5 inches and long fibers having a greater length, boiling the short fibers for a period ranging from about 10 minutes to about 2 hours in an aqueous caustic soda solution of between about 4 and about B. strength, the strength of the solution being related to the boilin time according to the formula:

a 11:5 to 12 where a is the boiling time in hours and b is the strength of the solution in degrees B., washing the boiled fibers with an aqueous medium having a pH value between 5.5 and '7, drying them, the fibers developing during the drying hook-shaped kinks causing adjacent fibers to cohere together while being slidably displaceable lengthwise of one another, and formin the kinky fibers on a sliver-forming machine into a brownish spinnable sliver.

5. A process as claimed in claim 4, in which the fibers are boiled for about 1 hour in a caustic soda solution of about 12 B. strength.

BAREND GYSBmTUS HENRY VANDERJAGT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 81,702 Staufen Sept. 1, 1868 203,177 Miller Apr. 30, 1878 450,119 Warrand Apr. 7, 1891 1,051,124 Kube Jan. 21, 1913 FOREIGN PATENTS Number. Country Date 356,754 Great Britain Sept. 7, 1931 

1. A PROCESS OF PREPARING A BROWNISH SPINNABLE SILVER FROM FIBERS CONTAINED IN THE STEMS OF SCRUB PALMETTO PLANTS (SERENOA REPENS), WHICH PROCESS COMPRISES THE STEPS OF BOILING FIBERS OBTAINED BY A MECHANICAL DEFIBRATION OF SCRUB PALMETTO PLANT STEMS FOR A PERIOD RANGING FROM ABOUT 10 MINUTES TO ABOUT 2 HOURS IN AN AQUEOUS CAUSTIC SODA SOLUTION OF BETWEEN ABOUT 4* AND ABOUT 55% BE''. STRENGTH, THE STRENGTH OF THE SOLUTION BEING RELATED TO THE BOILING TIME ACCORDING TO THE FORMULA 